Jug with gazelles and trees

Gazelles prance among checkerboard trees and exuberant vines on this lusterware jug. The potter has made careful use of the jug's squat shape, drawing the baseline for the gazelles at the jug's widest point.

The glistening effect of Persian lusterware comes from the fusion of metallic oxides to the glazed surface of an object in a second kiln firing. The process to achieve luster is difficult. Lusterwares were expensive, and intended for the luxury market.

Persian lusterware appears to have been made in Kashan, a city in central Iran and an important center of the medieval ceramics industry, for a short time before and after the Mongol invasions. The small number of dated pieces discovered so far are dated between 1179 and 1198.